Unprecedented carnage unfolds in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 08:15 GMT]Medical sources in Vanni reported Tuesday morning "mad shelling" by the Sri Lanka Army into civilian areas in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal north, forcing everyone under the bunkers. Several civilians have been killed. The wounded are let to die as people are not able to move out of the bunkers due to the unprecedented barrage by the SLA from 4:30 a.m. The SLA deployed 'scorched earth' barrage using all kinds of weapons from 6:00 p.m. Tuesday in Valaignarmadam breaking the LTTE defence line. As the shelling by the SLA started to target civilian areas in Tuesday morning, the southern part of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal has become completely congested and roads are blocked with civilians who managed flee from the northern areas.

Civilians killed in the vicinity of the makeshift hospital Tuesday morning

Civilians killed in the vicinity of the makeshift hospital Tuesday morning

Shells fired by artillery formations, Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers (MBRL), heavy mortars, RPGs and whizzing bullets from 50 calibre heavy machine guns from the advancing SLA units from Valaignarmadam have forced all the civilians, including the medical staff of the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal to stay under bunkers.

There are many dead bodies of civilians along the roads. Only some civilians have managed to bury or burn their dead.

Five of the patients at the hospital ward were killed in SLA shelling. One medical staff had sustained injuries.

The number of casualties could be in hundreds as medical sources feared many of the wounded would also have succumbed to their injuries due to the shelling that continued for hours in the morning.

Latest reports from the medical authorities said more than 200 civilians have managed to reach the makeshift hospital. Most of them have been bandaged, but there are no medical supplies to treat the wounds.

Reliable military sources in the South said that the SLA had advanced at least 600 meters breaking the defence line of the LTTE in Valaignarmadam Monday night, at the cost of heavy losses to SLA soldiers despite the deployment of superior fire.

The show of SLA fire power inside the so-called No Fire Zone, photographed from the sea Tuesday morning (28 April, 2009)

SLA barrage continued from 4:30 onwards on Tuesday

SLA shelling on civilian settlement, north of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal on 28 April, 2009 around 10:00 a.m.

SLA shelling, A SLAF helicopter gunship is on the sky

A dead body of the civilian being burnt outside a house in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Tuesday morning.

A house hit by SLA shelling, photographed Tuesday. The house was hit on Monday around 8:00 p.m.